Tag Archives: Twitter

No sooner had George Zimmerman been arrested than the Twitterverse exploded with gleeful speculation as to his fate in prison.

Considering the number of black men in prison, it is ironically likely that many of these tweeters have a friend or family member in jeopardy of prison sexual abuse. Perhaps even themselves, one day.

I will admit here that in the past I too used to joke about prison fate. “Gonna tear that boy a new one” and so on.

Then one day, I realized it wasn’t funny. And I am ashamed to have ever seen it as so. Whether one sees prison as the power structure’s holding pen for the oppressed of society, an institution with a humane mission of reformation and possible redemption, or simply a place to keep dangerous people, one principle applies.

"Big Stan" Rob Schneider in a 2007 movie themed on fear of prison rape. Billed as a comedy. Disgusting.

In a humane, rather human society that sees itself as an enterprise that exists for the good of all its members, there must be a fundamental understanding that if the state takes custody of your body, it has a duty to maintain the integrity of that body.

Thus, while it can be argued that prisoners have no rights to communications, college educations, cable TV, and other privileges and opportunities afforded free citizens, a free society that respects the individual must still see prisoners as autonomous beings with the same basic right to life as anyone else.

And more fundamental to this duty than adequate food, housing and medical care is personal security.

Andy(Tim Boggs) manages to avoid rape in the "Shawshank Redemption," but the issue is used as an opportunity for a bit of gay soft porn. A reprehensible aspect of an otherwise admirable film.

Prison rape is not funny. It is an abomination, and a stain on America’s character of a repugnance equal to that of the segregation of the past, for all it is far lesser known. This country has the ability and means to safeguard the only rights prisoners have, life and integrity of person, but it does not have the will.

The Prison Rape Elimination (PREA) Act of 2003 requires that the Department of Justice collect statistics and work to reduction of these crimes, committed by both inmates and staff. As I write this, for some reason I cannot access any of the Justice department sites dealing with PREA. The incidence of prison rape as reported by advocacy groups varies, but there is no doubt that these crimes number in the tens of thousands annually.

Prisoner request for AIDS test results after being raped. From Gabriel Films, "Prison Rape," a documentary instrumental in the passage of PREA.

Prison rape is not funny. A culture of tolerance, and even encouragement, not only within the prison system, but in the country at large, is one step on the road to Auschwitz.

(For survivors’ stories, and information and contacts to work for an end to prison sexual abuse, see: Just Detention

Malaysian authorities have deported a Saudi journalist accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a tweet. –BBC(12 February 2012)

In typical Beeb style, this is a rather measured statement of what actually happened. And that is this: A young man exercising speech rights enshrined in the U.N. human rights convention, but not recognized anywhere in the Islamic world, was seized while in lawful transit en route to a third country, by Malaysia’s “soft” theocratic state, and turned over to agents of world’s most repressive religious regime for rendition to Saudi Arabia, with the collusion of an international policing agency answerable to no one.

And now Hamza Kashgari, journalist and blogger from Jeddah, awaits retribution for his thought crime. It is interesting to not that Kashgari means “of Kashgar” a city in Southwest China, once known as a great caravan terminus in Chinese Turkestan. There has been great diversity within Islam, but the Wahhabi/Salafi/Muslim Brotherhood assault is bent on destroying these differences in the name of the suffocating orthodoxy challenged by the young Saudi.

Malaysia acted in response to a “red notice” issued by Interpol at tthe request of Saudis.

In response to past criticisms of the red notice system, it has said: “There are safeguards in place. The subject of a red notice can challenge it through an independent body, the commission for the control of Interpol’s files (CCF).”

One can only imagine the cost of the legal resources that would need to be brought to bear to achieve any result. Mr. Kashgari will not have the benefit of civil society organizations that would be able to help in some societies.

These “safeguards” were of no avail to the 22 year old Saudi. It makes me want to weep. Can you imagine how this boy felt, his young life in ruins behind him, but still with hope before him, as he flew east?

Then he lands in KLIA (Kuala Lumpur), transiting to New Zealand, and the grim face of Islamism greets him. Perhaps his hope continued to flicker for the few hours he was held, hoping that a world outcry would save him.

Human rights organizations did shout his case out to a largely heedless world, but those who could have helped, the foreign offices of Europe, and the United States State Department were, and of this writing, still are, silent.

How he felt on the flight “home” is too awful to contemplate.

I spit on “moderate Malaysia.”

This is the face Malaysia presents to the world. Not a hijab in sight when, in fact, most Malaysian Muslim women have taken up the head scarf since the 1980s.

Malasian Pas(Islamist Party) members demonstrate. This is more representative of current developments in Malaysia.

seem innocuous to those unfamiliar with the parameters defining blasphemy in Islamic jurisprudence:

In the first, Kashgari declared “I have loved the rebel in you, that you’ve always been a source of inspiration to me,” but then added: “I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you.” He followed that with a second tweet, “I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more.”

In a third, Kashgari said: “I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more.”

Reminiscent of one seeking a personal relationship with Jesus, but given the unquestioning regard of Muslim believers for the Islamic prophet, which only misses being fairly termed idolatry in that images of this “Perfect Man” are forbidden, the Saudi blogger’s tweets were enough to bring the wrath of the entire Kingdom, from royals to ordinary citizens.

The twats at Twitter should say something about it, but don’t count on it, as they have picked up a stack of Saudi Petrodollars recently

The Red Notice system has been the subject of abuse before, as in this 2004 Congressional Record discussion of bogus notices issued by Uzbekistan. What we have here is a system that allows repressive governments to pursue their nationals for crimes that would not be offenses in free countries, to suppress dissent, and purse their rulers’ personal vendettas..

During World War II, Interpol, then headquartered in Vienna, was headed by such SS luminaries as as Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Reinhard Heydrich. Now based in Lyon, France, it is headed by Ronald K. Noble, Clinton era U.S. Justice Department Undersecretary for Enforcement, and head of the Department’s “Waco Administrative Review Team.” In other words, there is more than a whiff of sympathy for coercive statism in the agency’s history.

And it is this that made Kashgari’s apprehension possible, even certain.

He fled his native country with thousands quite literally calling for his head.accusing him of apostasy. This is no surprise as, although the Koran itself does not state a temporal punishment for the crime, a widely accepted hadith (saying of Islam’s prophet Muhmmad) does:

Muhammad himslef was no mean axeman, at least by proxy, as the story of the Jewish Banu Qurayza, among other traditions, will attest.

While Mr.Kashgari did not deny Muhammad as Allah’s messenger, mere mockery of Allah or the prophet can constitute apostasy. The journalist is in jeopardy of great harm, not the least of which is time in a Saudi jail. Yet, I do not think his life will be taken. The case does have some visibility, and the suave spokesmen the Saudis send to the West will, one

Adel A. Al-Jubeir, current Saudi ambassador to the U.S.

hopes,counsel moderation for the sake of good PR.

A Saudi beheading. A regular Friday crowd pelaser at "Chop Square" in Riyadh. Plenty more where this came from: perennial favorites on YouTube

Rather, Hamza Kashgari’s fate will recall that of Winston Smith in 1984 Some schools of Islamic jurisprudence allow the apostate to recant and thus avoid death. This is the line taken against Christians accused of apostasy from Islam by Iran. Remember how in Orwell’s book, Winston, after his torture and breaking, was allowed his physical freedom, for a while.

One can almost wonder is Kashgari’s flight towards the western world was like the way the Inner Party played with its victims, before erasing them. Kashgari, too will learn to love Big Brother, or at least to convince all around that he does so. Islam is more merciful than Ingsoc, in that it requires only outward submission for survival in this world, leaving damnation for the secret denier to the next.

Nevertheless, the end result is the same: “a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”

What you can do:

Contact your foreign office.

Contact the Saudi Embassy in your country.

Express your anger to Malaysian representation in your country.

Contact Tourism Malaysia and let them know you will not be visiting Malaysia as a result of their country’s complicity in the Kashgari affair. This page provides contact information for Malaysian tourism promotion offices in various countries.

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